Alaska Public Lands Visitor Center

Great information is available here and next to it is an outdoor eating area and often music. Also find out about the area around the hut in winter. There are beautiful ice sculptures! I have been here many times, the last about a year ago.

WHOA! What a deal!
Right off the bat I need to mention something no one else has:
They have movies here.
They are not long in length but…
They are FREE.
My brother and I watched 3:
One on Katmai National Park: incredible. Insane camera angles and footage, you can almost feel the brown bears breathing on you!
One about the infamous Alaska goldrush: very fun documentary, a good reminder of the insane things humans will do at the prospect of RICHES.
One about the earthquake: very dated and hokey, but it’s fun if you’re into that sort of thing. (e.g. you enjoying reading The Onion and watching MST3k)
But, again, they were FREE.
Like many places in Alaska, they also have tasteful taxidermy.
They also have lots of MAPS.
It’s a great place to chat with some people in the know. Want to do some WILD or OUTDOORSY things in Alaska? No idea where to start? GO HERE.
The only negative, and luckily it’s not worth detracting a star for, is that you have to go through some TSA-​style security to enter this building. Kind of weird. Not sure if they think you’re going to shoot a stuff polar bear in the FACE or what.

For those of you who frequent Chugach state park, ie… flattop, thunderbird falls etc… If you plan to come to these places more than eight times a year, I encourage you to buy the $ 40 parking pass so you can quit paying $ 5 a visit :) (YES THOSE OF YOU WHO PARK FOR FREE, JUST BUY THE FLIPPING PASS, support the park your walking in!)
I didn’t get to walk around much in here, but the staff seemed very knowledgeable about cabins, camping and trails, which is what I came in here for.
I think this may be a place to bring your little one to look around and see the outdoorsy stuff that they have inside!
I believe they are open 7 days a week in the summer peak season!

I have to give this place 5 stars because of one man in particular, Cameron, who works in the center that’s in the Federal Building (I believe the center has a couple of locations?). The center has great information, displays, and maps, but we were specifically looking to see the Northern Lights and weren’t going to be able to go to Fairbanks to do it. Most of the locals we talked to were kind of negative about our chances.
Before we left Anchorage, we met Cameron, who is a bit of a Northern Lights Hunter. He gave us GREAT information about the lights, including 4 – 5 different spots to try to see them. We ended up driving 2 ½ hours north to Talkeetna based solely on Cameron’s recommendation, and at 1:15 in the morning, we saw the Northern Lights. And they were awesome. They went on for a good ½ hour. Thank you so much, Cameron! You made our trip!

The stuffed animal exhibits are pretty cool. They have NPS rangers who can help with a variety of touristy type information.
We had asked about northern lights and when they’ll start to be visible again (since we were visiting in summer)…the the ranger we talked to googled the information– that gave me a chuckle. Google… really?
But otherwise, as with everyone we met in Alaska, they were über friendly.
Not to waver from the topic — but there’s a hot dog stand right outside the visitor center which the hubby thought was delish.

The nice people from the Anchorage visitor center sent me across the street to view the exhibits here. The center contains a nice collection of preserved Alaskan wildlife. A store located in the center has a nice selection of books and maps for people that are interested in exploring Alaska outdoors. You can also get information on booking a public use cabin located in the Alaskan wilderness.